The No.1 Anti-Fans in Basketball-Chapter 516 - 257 Nike’s Layout_2

The decline in the New York Knicks’ performance late last season was also partly due to his season-ending elbow ligament tear.

However, the Cavaliers traded for him to back up Hawes, which could to some extent prevent his injury issues.

Of course, the Cavaliers’ interest in him was also because, as a big man, he possessed a stable three-point ability, with a career three-point percentage above 35%.

And like Vallejo, his contract was also in its final year, which was acceptable for the Cavaliers.

By the way, they also got Jack’s contract off their hands. After signing Williams and West, the Cavaliers’ backcourt now seemed a bit bloated.

As for JR Smith, he was purely a bonus, even a negative asset in the trade.

Fans have a saying, "JR’s not blowing it, he’s an all-star every day," referring to his outstanding talent, but inevitably, he’s going to blow it.

On the court, he often did some outrageous things, and off the court, he was even more trouble-prone; the New York Knicks had long wanted to get rid of him.

The Cavaliers were willing to take him, considering his good three-point ability and the fact that the team currently lacked a scoring bench mobster.

With this, the new Cavaliers roster was basically set.

Point guard: Irving, Mo Williams, Delavadova

Shooting guard: Hansen, JR, West

Small forward: Tucker, James Johnson, Sergei Kalashov (2013’s 19th pick)

Power forward: TT, Conningham

Center: Hawes, Bargnani

The Cavaliers’ roster was basically determined, but the flurry of free agency hadn’t ended.

Or rather, James joining the Lakers was just the beginning.

Because on the day after James joined, a seemingly impossible piece of news emerged.

Big Gasol signed with the Heat on a 3-year, $30 million contract (with a player option for the last year).

Hansen was completely floored when he saw this news.

How come with James going to the Lakers, Big Gasol ran off instead?

So was it really Gasol who was tough on the Lakers, disdainful of teaming up?

That notion seemed somewhat absurd.

Or was it the reason Wade agreed to a pay cut for his renewal?

Because if he took a pay cut and the team could pick up Gasol with that, then the Heat’s lineup for next season would be a direct march with The Big Four.

But the Heat’s owner was notoriously tightfisted, which didn’t quite make sense.

As he was still puzzling it out, the next piece of news practically fried his CPU.

The Heat signed a 5-year, $118 million contract with Bosh, then sent him to the Rockets in exchange for Vucevic and a $20 million trade exception.

Had Riley become a great philanthropist?!

Clearly impossible.

The only explanation was that Bosh himself wanted to leave the Heat for the Rockets.

But this made even less sense.

Because after the Grizzlies weakened, the Heat were the team most likely to win the championship.

Of course, with this move, the Rockets also became championship contenders, with a trio of Paul, Harden, and Bosh which, in a way, was not weaker than the Lakers’ Kobe and James duo.

Moreover, after the Heat re-signed Wade at a bargain price, brought in Big Gasol, and nabbed Vucevic for nothing, they still had ten million in cap space.

From a competition standpoint, Riley’s move was a key to breaking the game after the Lakers formed the 23 plus 24.

The Lakers without rivals in the West? Let me help you build one.

And if the Heat had re-signed Bosh, the roster would have been completely locked, unchanged from last season.

But with this move, they could use the remaining ten million in cap space to bolster the outside line.

After all, the fundamental reason the Heat lost the finals last season was that Wade could no longer hold off Hansen.

Although the Grizzlies were no longer as strong as before, Hansen had not retired like Jordan, and the Heat had to strengthen the outside to stand a chance.

And if they had signed Bosh, they wouldn’t have been able to do that.

In fact, on the very same day they parted ways with Bosh, the Heat Team took subsequent follow-up actions, giving a 4-year, $40 million offer sheet to Avery Bradley, a restricted free agent of the Celtics.

Bradley could organize plays, had a three-point shot, and was also strong on defense, which made him much more powerful than Chalmers.

However, the Celtics quickly chose to match the offer.

This match was expected, as Bradley was a player the Green Army was focused on developing; they had let go of Ray Allen before just for him.

After the match, the Heat didn’t stop there; they proceeded to sign Luol Deng with a 2-year, $19.68 million contract.

At the same time, they traded Perkins and two second-round picks to the New York Knicks.

After such maneuvers, the Heat’s salary was below the luxury tax, which enabled them to have the mid-level exception rather than the mini mid-level exception.

It was then that they used most of the mid-level exception to sign "the Swiss Army knife" Seferosa to a 3-year, $12 million contract.

The Thunders had previously traded for Afflalo and then drafted Roberson, pushing Seferosa to the fringes of the Thunders.

But his personal ability hadn’t declined that much.

Durant, Wade, Big Gasol, Luol Deng, Vucevic, Seferosa, Chalmers...

You couldn’t call this lineup The Big Three, but clearly, compared to the previous Big Three lineup, it had better roster depth, and Spoelstra was more flexible in strategizing and deploying the team.

Of course, the most important thing was that Big Gasol’s arrival filled the Heat’s greatest void in playmaking ability.

Don’t be fooled by the assist numbers of Big Gasol; compared to Wade and Durant, he was the real deal when it came to organizing plays.

His arrival could unleash the scoring abilities of Wade and Durant.

And though his low-post offense and defense might not be as good as Bosh’s, it was not off by much.

One could say that this version of the Heat team was more rational and stronger than last season’s team.

The Lakers were also moving forward with strengthening their roster.

They signed Channing Frye to a 4-year, $32 million contract.

From this move, it’s not hard to see that the Lakers probably weren’t in a rush to assemble a Big Three team.

For one thing, there was no suitable big man on the free agent market this year, and, surprisingly, players like Alderich did not opt-out and didn’t reach an early extension with the Blazers.

On the other hand, Lin Shuhao’s contract was hard to deal with.

The contract the Rockets had initially offered which was referred to as a poison pill contract was because the salary for the third year would surge to $14.89 million.

Although Lin Shuhao’s performance had been decent with the Lakers, it clearly did not match such a salary.

Afterwards, the Lakers reached a 1-year, $9 million extension with Jordan Hill and then traded for Varejao from the New York Knicks along with next year’s first-round pick.

Finally, they reached a 2-year, $10 million extension with Chris Kaman, with the second year being a team option.

"Winning a championship in the Cavaliers is not going to be easy," Rondo commented while showing some real estate resources to Hansen, touching on the changes in the free agency market.

Although both are in the Cavaliers, the external environment Hansen is now facing is much more challenging than what James faced back in the day.

"But there’s no helping it, Nike needs to counterattack soon or UA will take over the market," Rondo continued, sharing his own views.

Hansen didn’t care much about the first part of Rondo’s statement, but the second half lightened up his eyes.

Many things that he didn’t understand seemed to suddenly make sense at that moment.

The free agency market had seen many changes, but mainly centered around three teams: the Heat, Rockets, and Lakers.

And the stars of these teams—from the Lakers’ Kobe and James, Rockets’ Paul, Harden, and Bosh, to the Heat’s Wade, Durant, and Big Gasol—all hailed from Nike!

Nike was setting a big stage this summer and was following the strategy of "not putting all eggs in one basket."

In the West, both the Rockets and Lakers had First Tier strength; whoever eventually broke through wouldn’t be a loss.

As for the East, the Heat was the first line of defense against the Cavaliers, and even if one managed to conquer the East, they would have to face the Lakers or Rockets, who had been "cultivating gu" as it were.

Especially since it was Hansen’s first year with the Cavaliers, they would face problems with the lineup and cohesion, giving them a substantial advantage.

This was Nike feeling the pressure after Hansen’s Dynasty with the Grizzlies helped UA consistently grow and corner Nike into a tight spot.

"They’ve overlooked somebody," Hansen said just as they both received a news alert on their phones.

The Warriors decided to part ways with Mark Jackson and hired TNT commentator Steve Cole for a 5-year, $25 million contract.

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